This invention relates to cotton fiber processing and more particularly to an apparatus and method of separating foreign matter from fibrous cotton that has been ginned from the seed.
Prior methods and apparatus include those such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,881, incorporated herein by reference, wherein a revolving perforated drum is used to allow air flow through the drum such that a cleaning cylinder may remove cotton fiber from the perforated drum and carry it past a plurality of cleaning grid bars, thereby separating the air flow and removing foreign matter from the fibers, before the fiber is doffed from the cleaning cylinder for subsequent air flow to downstream processing.
However, the perforated revolving cylinder of the '881 apparatus, revolving at velocities to prevent agglomeration of the tufts in the air stream, develops centrifugal forces that cause the fine trash and very short fibers that penetrate the perforations to accumulate on the interior surfaces of the perforated cylinder. These accumulations require the use of compressed air blasts to cause them to move axially out the open ends of the cylinder. While the compressed air blasts provide a solution to this problem of accumulations, the maintenance and cost of the compressed air system detracts from the otherwise excellent performance of the apparatus per the '881 patent.